[countable] an illegal act or activity that can be punished by law. There is no proof that she committed a crime (= did something illegal). Hate crime · True Crime · Organized crime · Crime scene

[countable] crime (against somebody) an illegal act or activity that can be punished by law to commit a crime (= do something illegal) The massacre was a crime ...

A crime is held to be an offence that goes beyond the personal and into the public sphere, breaking prohibitory rules or laws.

There are six meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun crime, two of which are labelled obsolete. See 'Meaning & use' for definitions, usage, and quotation ...

​a person who commits a crime. a convicted criminal; Police sometimes put themselves in danger when arresting violent criminals.

​a genre of book, film, etc. that examines or tells the story of a real crime. It's a true crime story in which truth is stranger than fiction.

Topic Dictionaries group together words related to common subject areas.

[usually before noun] (rather formal or law) connected with or involving crime. It should be a criminal offence to inflict cruelty on any wild animal.

hate crime · ​[uncountable] violent acts that are committed against people because they are of a different race or ethnic group, because they are gay, etc.

The Oxford Dictionary of Law defines crime as being: “An act (or sometimes a failure to act) that is deemed by statute or by the common law to be a public wrong ...